Basketball (M)

MBB Preview: Arkansas vs #8/8 Florida

January 10, 2025

Who: rv/rv Arkansas Razorbacks (11-4, 0-2 SEC) vs #8/8 Florida Gators (14-1, 1-1 SEC)
What: For the first time in program history, Arkansas opens league play (SEC and SWC) versus three-straight, top-25 teams.
When: Saturday – Jan. 11 – 3:00 pm (CT)
Where: Fayetteville, Ark. • Bud Walton Arena/Nolan Richardson Court (19,200)
How (to follow):
– TV/Stream: ESPN / Watch ESPN (Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes)
– Radio: Learfield Razorback Sports Network (Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman)
– Sirius/XM: Sirius: 84 / XM: 84 || SXM App Channel 84
– Arkansas Gameday App
– Live Stats

– Arkansas Game Notes  
– Florida Game Notes
– SEC Notes/Stats

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas will close its two-game homestand by hosting #8 Florida on Saturday (Jan. 11). Tipoff is set for 3 pm (CT) and the game will be televised on ESPN.

Next week, Arkansas plays a pair of road games starting at LSU on Tuesday (Jan. 14) with tipoff set for 8 pm (CT).

NOTES:

Versus Florida

  • Arkansas and Florida have met on 39 previous occasions, all since the Razorbacks entered the SEC for the 1991-92 season.
  • Florida owns a 27-15 advantage in the series overall. However, Arkansas leads 10-7 in games played in Fayetteville, including a two-game winning streak.
  • Last year, Florida won 90-68 in Gainesville. Arkansas got off to a slow start but used a 12-3 run to cut its deficit to 10 after a Joseph Pinion fastbreak basket with 6:56 left in the first half. However, Florida opened the second half with an 11-4 run to push its lead to 20 and never looked back. Florida, which led the NCAA in rebounding, held a 48-31 advantage on the boards including 15 offensive boards to out-score Arkansas 17-8 on second-chance points.

Playing #8

  • This will be the second time this year Arkansas has faced a team ranked #$8 in the AP poll. In game two, then #16 Arkansas lost to then #8 Baylor, 72-67, in Dallas.
  • All-time, Arkansas is 3-6 versus AP #8 teams.
  • However, Coach Calipari is 7-2 all-time versus AP #8 teams. (2-0 at UMass • 1-0 at Memphis  •  4-1 at Kentucky  •  0-1 at Arkansas)

Arkansas Has Tough Opening Stretch

  • Arkansas opened the SEC slate at #1 Tennessee, hosted #23 Ole Miss on Wednesday and hosts #8 Florida on Saturday.
  • The Razorbacks have never opened conference action (SEC nor SWC) by facing three-straight, top 25 opponents. The closest was playing three ranked opponents in games 2, 3 and 4 to open the 2022-23 SEC season. In 1999-00, Arkansas closed the regular season by facing six-straight, top-25 opponents (going 2-4) vs #11 Florida (L, 80-71) on Feb. 15, vs #16 LSU (L, 78-67) on Feb. 19, vs #24 Vanderbilt (W, 78-63), at #18 Kentucky (L, 60-55) on Feb. 26, at #11 Tennessee (L, 73-66) and vs #19 Auburn (W, 64-55).
  • The last time Arkansas played three-straight, top-25 opponents was twice in the 2022-23 season. First, games 2, 3 and 4 of the of the 2022-23 conference season, Arkansas faced #20 Missouri (W, 74-68) on Jan. 4, played at #22 Auburn (L, 72-59) on Jan. 7 and hosted #4 Alabama (L, 84-69) on Jan. 11. Later, the Razorbacks closed the regular season by playing at #2 Alabama (L, 86-83) on Feb. 25, at #2 Tennessee (L, 75-57) on Feb. 28 and vs #23 Kentucky (L, 88-79) on Mar. 4.
  • Overall, Arkansas has only played at least three-straight, top-25 opponents in the regular season 8 times including twice in 2022-23 (see above), once in 2002-03 (at #4 Florida, vs #22 Alabama, at #23 Miss State), once in 2001-02 (at #15 Georgia, vs #5 Florida, at #7 Alabama), once (technically twice) in 1999-00 (see above), once in 1998-99 (at #23 Florida, vs #6 Kentucky, vs #2 Auburn), once in 1990 Preseason NIT (vs #15 Oklahoma, vs #6 Duke, vs #3 Arizona) and once in 1980 Alaska Shootout (#11 Mizzou, #12 LSU, #13 North Carolina).

Some Good News

  • In 2022-23, when Arkansas played three straight, top-25 teams in games 2, 3, and 4 of the SEC season, the Razorbacks went 1-2 by beating #20 Mizzou and losing to #22 Auburn and #4 Alabama. Overall, Arkansas started that season 1-5 in league play but finished the year by making its third-straight Sweet 16.
  • In 2021-22, Arkansas started league play 0-3 but finished 13-5 in the league and reached the NCAA Elite 8.
  • In 2020-21, Arkansas started league play 1-3 to start and was 2-4 in the league after six conference game. The Hogs won its final 13 league games, finishing 13-4 in the SEC, and reached the NCAA Elite 8.
  • The SEC has had at least one team make the NCAA Tournament field during five of the last six seasons after an 0-2 conference start when the Big Dance has been held including Florida (2024) • Texas A&M (2024)  •  Miss State (2023)  •  Arkansas (2022)  •  Mississippi State (2019)  •  Tennessee (2018)  • Texas A&M( 2018)

Adou is Now #1

  • Adou Thiero, who was 7-of-12 from the field versus Ole Miss, now leads the SEC, and ranks 20th in the NCAA, in field goal percentage at 60.8%. He has shot over 60% from the field in 8 of his 14 games. He is shooting an impressive 68.6% (81-118) from inside the 3-point arc.
  • Last time out, Thiero led the team with 17 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Thiero has led the team in scoring a team-best seven times, led the team in rebounding a team-best eight times and led the team in steals a team-best seven times.

 

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